(Image source: SCEA.)

Final Fantasy XII gives the player complete freedom to develop party members as there aren’t any professions or jobs or character classes to limit you to specific skillsets. You can opt for skillsets common to RPG archetypes like warrior or caster but you can also create a spellcasting swordsman clad in heavy armour. There are no penalties in the game for casting a spell in armour and a spellcaster will wield a sword just as adroitly as a pure warrior.

Though the game manual suggests creating a balanced party of specialists (instead of a party of balanced and versatile characters), there doesn’t seem to be any impetus to go that traditional route.
Continued…

(Original image source: Square Enix.)

Square Enix loves cinematics so much it never passes up an opportunity for a cutscene in Final Fantasy XII. Pivotal story moments are depicted with them, of course, but there are other events that the developer considered cutscene-worthy. Boss entrance? Cutscene. Boss vanquished? Cutscene. New area? Cutscene. Special attack? Cutscene. Summoning an esper? Cutscene. Esper special attack? A comically over-the-top cutscene.

The cinematics are a visual treat thanks to the exotic-cool artistic designs but some restraint would have been nice. There are sequences in the game when cutscene after cutscene occur. Three is the most I’ve experienced so far. I know it was three because I had to skip thrice. I’d seen them already and I was only seeing them again because I had to replay after the party was wiped out by a boss.

To skip a cutscene, press the Start button followed by the X button. This, curiously enough, is undocumented in the game manual.

(Image source: Square Enix.)

I had a long dungeon run in Final Fantasy XII today. This one saw the party seeking a mystical device in a king’s tomb. Ostensibly meant to determine royal heritage, the device’s true purpose is to facilitate an overblown cinematic sequence, the kind Square Enix is inordinately fond of.

I was once again left resentful of the save system. The end of the dungeon was a good two hours away from the start and there were no Save Crystals to be found in-between. The dungeon run began with a tough boss fight and ended with a tougher one but it was otherwise unchallenging. The prospect of replaying those two hours because I failed at the final hurdle left me wondering about the designers and the actual nature of their relationship with their mothers.

Thankfully, I managed to beat the final boss, a fiery esper, by the skin of my teeth. Five of the party were KO’d and the last was blissfully asleep so victory had to come courtesy of an AI-controlled ally down to his last sliver of his health bar. He struck down the boss just as the boss himself was about to deliver the killing blow.

Square Enix congratulated me on my narrow victory with an overblown cinematic sequence, which was awfully nice. Their mothers must have raised them right.